The Road Less Taken
by Rachael Greene
Summary: What if Scully had gone to Utah when they tried to reassign her during the movie? A story about what might have happened to Scully and Mulder if she had gone to Utah.
1. Chapter 1

**F.B.I. field office Salt Lake City, Utah**

**7:35 A.M.**

"Agent Scully, I think that you should come over here and get a good look at this," said her partner, Agent Foster.

"What is it, Agent Foster?" she asked. She walked toward Agent Foster's desk and found him looking at photographs. When she got to his desk, he looked up at her with this sympathetic look on his face. He motioned for her to look at the pictures.

Agent Scully could not believe her eyes. Scully saw blood everywhere. The grass around the victim was smeared with it everywhere, and it changed the color of the grass to be a dark brown color. The victims eyes were still open and had this innocent look to them, as if she did not know what was happening to her when she died. Her hair was long, beautiful, golden locks. The body was lying on it's stomach; the head was decapitated. Scully froze looking at the picture. "Who could do this to a little girl," she thought to herself.

"Is this a case, Agent Foster?" she asked. Her hands got icy cold as she held the picture in her hand.

"This is not just a case, Agent Scully, it is our case and five other agents working on it. Three from our bureau and two are coming in from elsewhere. Apparently the bureau couldn't spare anymore right now, you know - with all the terrorist threats and stuff, so Headquarters is sending out two of their people from Violent Crimes. Then we will have seven people working on the case, which is about the smallest number of agents to be equipt with for a case like this," Foster explained.

"Do you know who the agents from D.C. are?" Scully inquired. She looked directly into his large, brown eyes in hopes that she would get an answer. The one thing that she admired most about her partner was how honest he was. Scully could ask him anything, and she knew that he would always answer as truthfully as he knew how. This was something new for her, and something that she appreciated. Although Fox Mulder was always truthful to her, he was not always truthful to the people around him. This was a quality that she appreciated in her new partner.

"No, I don't," he said, "But Section Chief Anderson said that they will be here by five o' clock tonight."


	2. Chapter 2

**42 Hegal Place**

**Alexandria, VA**

Beep. Beep. Beep. Special Agent Fox Mulder rolled over and looked at the alarm clock, which registered seven o' clock in the morning. He woke up that Monday morning with no life to him at all. He looked at his alarm clock on the night stand next to his bed, and sighed. "Guess this is the start to another week," he said to himself.

Mulder got himself out of bed and headed for the bathroom to take a shower and brush his teeth. His feet drudged on the carpet floor. He walked into the living room half naked and bare foot and into the bathroom.

He turned on the shower, and got inside. He loved the feeling of the warm water flowing down his back, and the steam that filled the room. He lathered and rinsed his hair, then got out and stepped onto the bath mat outside of the tub. He dried himself off with his towel, got dressed, brushed his teeth and went out the door to go to work.

Mulder usually was not late for work anymore, not like he used to be anyway. It was not that he looked forward to going to work so much as it was that he did not want to go without pay, since he did want to keep his apartment. He was a loner. After Special Agent Dana Scully was sent to Salt Lake City six years ago, he had been reassigned to violent crimes, which is where he was placed with his current partner, Agent Alex Marshall. Agent Marshall was considered to be a good agent, but went on hunches and intuition - not evidence. This was a dim reminder to Mulder of his time on the x-files, which was a small project outside of the bureau mainstream. The purpose of the x-files was to investigate paranormal phenomena, something that he had been forced to give up when Scully was reassigned six years earlier.

"Good Morning, Fox," Agent Marshall said. Alexandra Marshall walked up to him. Her blonde hair flowed down her back and she walked. She came at him with a folder in her hand.

" 'Morning, Agent Marshall," Mulder replied. He ran his hand through his brown hair. His eyes stared at the floor.

"Why don't you call me 'Alex', like I call you 'Fox'?" she asked. Although Marshall had graduated from Stanford, she was not always the brightest one. Many of the people considered Alexandra Marshall to be rather ditzy, and not on the ball.

"I call it being professional, wouldn't you?" he retorted. "What is it that you have in your hand?" Mulder motioned toward the manila folder in her hand.

"Well, since you ask, it is a case that we have been assigned to. A young girl of about five years of age was stabbed and decapitated last night, and the Salt Lake City bureau is asking for our help on the matter," Agent Marshall explained.

"Why are the asking for our help?" asked Mulder. He sat down at his desk rather slowly. He was curious to know the nature of the case, but he was more curious to know who else was working on it, for he knew that Scully was also assigned to the Salt Lake City bureau.

"Because they don't have enough agents to spare on this one, and they thought that our expertise might be useful on a case like this, you know, since we are from violent crimes and all," Marshall replied. "Our plane leaves at eleven o' clock so I think that we should get going, don't you?"

"Yeah, we should. Marshall, I'll meet you at Dulles at nine-thirty, okay?" Mulder said as he was already half way out of the room. Mulder did not have an office anymore, he had a desk in a large room with at least fifty other agents. His partner, Agent Marshall, had a desk right next to his.

"Okay," Alex replied. She got her coat off of her chair at her desk and began to follow Mulder out of the room.

Agent Marshall went home and packed her overnight bag. She and Agent Mulder never seemed to go anywhere for more than a night or two, so she thought that this case would not be any different. She looked in her bureau and collected three pairs of socks, three pairs of pantyhose, and other undergarments. She looked through her closet to try to find suitable dress attire; she packed three of those as well.

When she was done packing, she left her apartment and drove to Dulles International Airport. This is where she and Mulder would fly out together to Utah. She parked her car in the overnight parking lot, as she usually did when she went on these trips. She noticed Mulder's car was already there. She went through security and into the terminal where she found Mulder waiting for her.

"Gosh you got here quickly," Marshall said cheerily.

"Well, I happen to need less than a lady does," Mulder replied. The entire time Mulder was at the airport, all he could think about was Scully. He knew that she had been assigned to the Salt Lake City bureau six years earlier, and he was hoping that maybe he could get a chance to see her again. For six years they had very little contact beyond the occasional Christmas or birthday card This could be his chance to get to say more than two sentences to her for a long time.

"Oh, here is our flight. Gate 37A," said Alex. She gathered up her carry on and her purse from where she and Agent Mulder were standing and began to walk over to where the plane would be departing from. Mulder followed her over. He sat down in one of the red seats against the wall and took out a magazine entitled _UFO Weekly_ and began to read.

"You really like that don't you, Agent Mulder," Alex said. A nodded toward the magazine that he was reading.

"Yeah. Yeah, I do," Mulder replied. He did not even look up from his book.

"Why do you like it?" Alex asked.

Mulder put his magazine down, sighed, and said "I like this magazine, Agent Marshall, because not everything in it can be explained with conventional wisdom or knowledge. It is abstract, different, and intelligent, unlike most of the United States." His icy comments sent a chill down Alex Marshall's back. She knew that she was not the most observant person in the world. She knew that she was not always the easiest person to work with as well, but she knew that she wanted people to treat her with the same common decency and respect that they would treat someone with that they did not know.


	3. Chapter 3

**Farmington, Utah**

**Scully / Geller Residence**

**12:30 P.M.**

"What are you doing home now," Richard Geller asked. Since it was twelve-thirty in the afternoon, he did not expect his wife home so soon. Richard was a professor at the local university. He and Scully had been married for five years and had one child - a daughter, named Chelsea Rachael Geller, who was four years old. Since this was the middle of the summer, he was not teaching at the time. Chelsea was home with him

"I have a case that I am working on, so I won't be home at the normal time tonight because the other agents from Washington will not be here until five o'clock, so I came home to see both of you now,"she explained to her husband.

"Mommy!" Chelsea cried. "What are you doing here. I thought you had to work?"

"Well, as I just told Daddy, I do have to work, in fact, I have to work late tonight, so I came home now to see both of you," Scully explained to her daughter. Scully did not conceive Chelsea through natural conception. She and Richard had to go have in-vitro fertilization done in order to have their daughter.

"Why do you have to work late, Mommy?" asked Chelsea. She looked up at her mother from what seemed like miles away. Chelsea was only about three feet tall. She had beautiful, brown, curly hair and blue eyes.

"Because I was given a case, and some of the other people who are working on it can't get here until later tonight," Scully explained. She bent down and picked up her daughter.

"How long are you going to be here for?" her husband asked.

"I can't stay too long, but I can stay for at least an hour, considering they will not need me for anything because we can't do anything until the other agents get here," Scully explained.

Her husband did not ask her about what the case was, he never did. Richard understood that her work was confidential, for the most part, unless it had to do with one of the family members. He never asked who was involved on a case either. Scully had told him this since the day they had met, six years ago.

After being home for about an hour and having lunch with her husband and her daughter, Scully got into her green Honda Civic and drove back to work. Although Scully liked her job, she did not like the fact that she had to spend ample amounts of time away from her family.

**Flight 173**

Mulder sat on his seat in the plane and began to think. He thought about Scully mostly. It had been six years since he had last seen her, and he wondered how she was. When Scully was reassigned to Utah six years ago, she and Mulder thought it would be best to limit their contact, in hopes that Mulder might be able to continue his investigations into the paranormal; however, that was not the case. This was Mulder's ulterior motive for following the rules that were set by the F.B.I. in hopes that he could start up the x-files again.

Mulder remembered their last moments together before she left. They were at the airport saying goodbye. Scully had decided not to stay in Washington as a doctor because she preferred her job at the F.B.I. Mulder pleaded with her not to go to Salt Lake because he was afraid that he would never see her again. Scully would reply that she had to go in order to go to the next step in her life. This went on for nearly a half an hour. Finally, Scully knew that she had to board her plane, and the next thing Mulder knew, she was gone, and he was on violent crimes.

"Please fasten your seatbelts. The plane is going to be landing," said the stewardess.

"Guess we are here," said Agent Marshall. She smiled at Mulder, but she noticed that he seemed more pre-occupied than usual with something. He seemed to be in a distant world, far from anything that she knew.


	4. Chapter 4

**F.B.I. Field Office**

**Salt Lake City, Utah**

**5:14 P.M**

"Agent Scully, Agent Foster, the two agents from Washington are here," said one of the agents. He popped his head into the room where the other agents were gathering.

"Where are they?" asked Scully. She looked up from her work.

"They are outside in the lobby, do you want me to go get them?" he replied.

"Yes, that would be helpful, thank you, Agent Rice." she answered.

Scully went back to her desk, put on her reading glasses and sat down in her chair to start typing her profile of the killer. Scully was forty now. You could see that she had aged a little. She wore her reading glasses for more than when she had a headache now. She even used them to drive a lot of the time.

A minute later Agent Rice came back into the room with the agents from Washington. One of them was a woman, who she thought could be no older than thirty-three years old. She had blonde hair and blue eyes. She appeared to be somewhat naive at first glance. When Agent Scully looked at the man, she could not believe who it was. She blinked twice, took off her reading glasses and got up from her desk and walked over.

"Mulder!" Scully cried. "You're here to help me?" She was in disbelief.

"Scully, oh, my god. I can't believe it's you," Mulder smiled. He walked over to her and gave her a hug. For the first time in six years, he was going to be working with the one person that he trusted implicitly, who knew everything about him, and was his best friend.

"Wow, I can't believe it's you. I never thought that I would be working a case with you again," she said.

"I know. Hey, Scully, this is my partner, Agent Marshall. She has been with me for about a year and a half," Mulder explained.

"Hi," she said, "Just call me 'Alex', or as Agent Mulder prefers, 'Marshall'." She shook Scully's hand.

"Hi, I'm Special Agent Dana Scully. This is my partner, Nate Foster. We've been working together for two years," Scully explained.

Agent Foster came over, when Scully said his name. He was a shorter guy than Mulder, but equally intelligent. "Hi, I'm Nate," replied Agent Foster. He shook Mulder and Marshall's hands. "So enough getting to know each other, let's get down to business, shall we?"

The Agents took their seats while Scully presented the case to them. This was the first time since she had been in Utah that she had the same rush that she had while she was in Washington. She felt strong and proud to be an F.B.I. agent.

"This is the victim," Agent Scully said. "Her name is Alison Marie Greene. She is the daughter of Julia and Matthew Greene. She is their middle child. She has an older sister, Amanda Jean Greene, who is eleven, and a younger sister, Laura Ashley Ann Greene, who is two years old. The house was locked from the inside, both of her parents were home, and so were both of their daughters. They live in a fairly new development in Morgan, Utah, a small suburb.

There were no signs of forced entry, and the body and head of the child was found outside of the house, three miles away at the local park. There were no signs of foul play. The coroner's office has concluded that the child died of asphyxiation, and that it was a seven-inch blade on the knife that did the decapitating of the head; however, they do not know what kind of knife it was. The decapitation was post-mortem. This is all the information we have right now.

I would like Agents Rice and Walters to start by collecting evidence at the park. Agent Foster will collect evidence from the house. Agent Anderson will start by writing a profile of the killer. Agents Marshall and I will talk to the parents first, and Agent Mulder will talk to the children first. This is the fifth victim in the fifth state, which has been killed like this, let this be the last one, shall we? "

She gathered up her slides and her notes from the front of the room and went back to her desk. Just as she was getting ready to leave, Mulder came over to talk to her.

"Scully, should we go over and start to question the parents now?" Mulder asked.She looked at her watch. She knew she needed to go home to her daughter and her husband.

"Mulder, it's nine-thirty at night. Somehow I doubt the Greenes would want to be bothered at this hour after losing a child. Besides, I have to go home," she replied.

"Why do you have to go home, could we go get a drink or something?" Mulder asked.

"I - I don't know Mulder. I mean it's nine-thirty, I should go home," Scully answered.

"What are you married or something?" Mulder chuckled.

"Yes, I am, Mulder," Scully explained. "And that is why I can't go have a drink with you. I need to go home."

Mulder looked at her in disbelief. Although he knew that he and Scully had drifted apart, he did not realize how far apart. She was married, something which he thought would never happen. Even though he was happy for her, at the same time, he was jealous. Mulder watched Scully walk out of the room to go home.

After she left the room, he decided that he would round up Agent Marshall and get going to the hotel for the night. He walked over to where she was on the other side of the room. She was standing talking to Agent Rice and Agent Walters.

"Should we get going back to the hotel now?" Mulder asked Agent Marshall.

"I guess. We aren't starting this tonight, are we?" she replied.

"No. No we're not. We are going to reconvene here tomorrow at seven-thirty in the morning, so we had better go and get our sleep, don't you think?" Mulder answered.

"I guess. I will see you guys later, okay?" Agent Marshall said to the other two agents. Agent Marshall grabbed her briefcase off of a desk, and she and Mulder walked out the door.

Mulder was very quiet when he walked down the hallway. He seemed distant, and angry. Mulder could not understand how Scully could go off and get married after all she had seen and done with Mulder for six years. They had been though everything together, or so it seemed at the time. He thought that maybe they had more than just a working relationship; however, he proved himself wrong. Agent Marshall looked at him with a sympathetic glance.

"So you know that Agent Scully, huh?" she asked him. Alex wanted to know more about Mulder and his past.

"Yeah. We, uh, we used to work together," Mulder said. He remembered fondly the times that he and Scully had spent investigating cases.

"In violent crimes? How long did you work together?" Marshall asked him. Even though they had worked together for a year and a half, she did not know very much about him.

"No, actually. I was working on something called the x-files. In fact, you may have heard of it when you were at the academy. I started working on the x-files back in 1991 with an old friend. In '93 she was reassigned to a different area. That was when Scully came to work with me. The section chief put her on the x-files to 'spy on me', initially, but as a tribute to her honesty and integrity, she didn't. She worked with me for six years. It seemed like we had been through everything together," Mulder explained. He opened the door to the Ford Crown Victoria that they had rented from the rental car agency.

"What happened?" asked Agent Marshall. She got into the car.

"We had this case in Dallas. We were working with a bunch of agents to find this bomb which was supposedly in the federal building; however, they were wrong. It was in the building across the street from the federal building. The bomb went off because it was not defused in time, and Scully and I were blamed for it. The x-files were closed, and she was sent to Utah. I was reassigned to violent crimes. You may have heard about it, I don't know," Mulder replied.

"Yeah, I heard something about it. It was on the news, I remember. Wow, so that is what happened. Were you guys close?" she asked.

"Yeah, I guess. But after she moved out here we drifted apart, and now, I don't know her anymore, really," Mulder sighed. He turned on his blinker to turn into the hotel parking lot.


	5. Chapter 5

**Farmington, Utah**

**Scully Residence**

**10:13 P.M.**

Scully walked inside her house. It was a beautiful house. She and her husband had the house built when they got married five years earlier. The house was built to resemble the colonial Georgian period. They had a living room, kitchen, dining room, study, 21/2 bathrooms, and four bedrooms. It was a beautiful house. Scully walked up the stairs and checked on her daughter. Chelsea was found sleeping soundly. Although it was thought medically impossible for Scully to conceive and give birth to a child, her husband and she tried in-vitro fertilization, and was able to conceive her daughter.

Scully loved that girl more than anything in the world. She thought that she would never be able to have children of her own, but here she was. She gave Chelsea just about anything that she ever wanted - within reason, which is not hard with a four-year-old. She tried to protect her from everything that she could that was bad in the world.

Scully closed the white oak door to her daughter's bedroom, and walked into her own bedroom. It was a rather large bedroom. They had their king sized bed, bureaus, and an office area with a desk computer and phone. Richard and Scully also had their own personal bathroom. This is where she got ready for bed. She put on her cotton pajamas and brushed her teeth and fell into bed next to her husband.

While she laid there, all she could think about was her encounter with Mulder earlier that day. Until that moment, Scully did not realize the feelings that she had for Mulder. She never truly realized until then how much she loved him, or cared about him. When she was reassigned to Salt Lake City, she thought that she would see him again on occasion, but now, she realized that her chances of seeing him again were slim and far between. Scully did not want to lose her best friend again.


	6. Chapter 6

**Field Office**

**7:35 A.M.**

Scully walked into the conference room where the agents were last night. Her partner, Agent Foster walked up to her. She sees apprehension in his face.

"Hey, Agent Scully, how are you?" he asked.

"I'm fine. How are you?" She replied.

"I'm fine. Do you think that we should be working with our partners on this one? I mean, instead of splitting everyone up?" Foster asked.

"I thought about that, but there are only two agents from D.C. and if we did it that way, we would leave them out, I think," Scully explained. She walked past Agent Foster and went up to the front of the room to address the group. She noticed Agent Mulder and Agent Marshall standing at the back of the room.

"Since there have been no new developments since last night, you will all be completing the same tasks that you were assigned last night. That is all I have to say, let's get started," Scully said.

The agents left the room to go do their jobs. Scully, Agent Foster, Mulder, and Agent Marshall met up at the back of the room. They were silent.

"Ready to go?" Scully asked. They all replied saying 'yes'.

They agreed that they would take Mulder and Marshall's car out to the house, since it was a rental car. Scully and Agent Foster sat in the back while Mulder drove, as usual while Agent Marshall sat up front. The car ride to the Greene residence was quiet the entire way. Mulder ate his sunflower seeds. Agent Marshall read her magazine. Scully looked out the window, and Agent Foster looked at the case. The car took a left turn onto Mulberry Street, where the victim and her family lived. The agents parked outside of the house and got out of the car. Mulder

Mulder walked up to the door of the house. He rang the door bell twice. I woman came to answer the door who looked to be about Scully's age. She had brown hair and blue eyes. She was not tall, in fact, she was a little on the short side.

"Mrs. Greene? I'm Special Agent Fox Mulder. This is Special Agent Dana Scully, and Agents Foster and Marshall. We are here investigating your daughter's murder," Mulder said. He could tell by the look on her face that she was distraught.

"Please come in," she replied. Agent Foster went up to where the crime scene was on the second floor. Scully, Mulder, and Agent Marshall went into the living room with her. Her husband and daughters were in the living room sitting down.

"Would it be all right if I talked to your daughters?" Mulder asked.

"Of course," Mrs. Greene replied.

"Thank you," said Mulder. He took the two girls out into the kitchen. They sat down at the table. Amanda sat across from Mulder, and the younger one, Laura Ashley sat between them.

Amanda was small for her age. Although she was eleven, she looked as if she were eight or nine. However, when she spoke she sounded much smarter. She had light hair, like her father, and blue eyes. Laura Ashley, on the other hand, had dark hair like her mother and blue eyes.

"Were you awake at nine-thirty two nights ago?" Mulder asked Amanda.

"Agent Mulder, I'm almost twelve, of course I was awake at nine-thirty two nights ago," replied.

"Did you see or hear anything weird coming out of your sister's room?" he asked her.

"No, I didn't. I was downstairs watching TV with my mother and father. We already did this with the police," she answered.

"Well, thank you for your patience," Mulder answered coldly. He did not understand how a child of the mere age of eleven be so cold.

"I was sleepin'!" exclaimed Laura Ashley. She grinned as she puts the chocolate chip cookie in her mouth. It was apparent that she was oblivious to what was going on. Mulder smiled at her, and left to go out into the other room where Scully and Agent Marshall were talking to the parents.

"Did you see anything abnormal the night that Alison was taken?" Scully asked. She worded the question rather broadly in hopes of getting anything out of them, even if it was a little on the paranormal side.

"No, I don't think so," the mother said. She looked at her husband, to see if he remembered anything different.

"Amanda, Julia, and I were just watching TV. What was it, Honey, that show we were watching? I think it was _Law and Order SVU_" her husband said.

"Were your doors locked?" Agent Marshall asked.

"Yes, they were," Julia Greene replied.

"Do you know all of your neighbors up and down the street," Scully questioned.

"Yes, except for the new family that moved in last week, but they have two children of their own, so I doubt they are probably suspects," said Mrs. Greene.

Mulder stood in the background and just watched Scully and his partner ask the parents questions. He took some notes on his little pad of paper in his pocket. This was not the first time that he had seen cases like this, and although it was a terrible thing to happen, it did not bother him like it used to.

Soon, he, Scully, and Agent Marshall were on their way back to the car, and were ready to go back to the office. Before they left, Scully went to find Agent Foster to tell him that they were leaving, and so he should get a ride back with some other agents. Foster told her that would be fine, and he had more work to do before he could go anyway. Scully left him and went back to the car were Mulder and his partner was waiting for her.

They climbed into the car and headed back to the office. This time Scully was in the front sitting next to Mulder and his partner was in the back. Mulder drove while he ate sunflower seeds, and Scully just stared out the window. She wondered why she used to know him so well, but now there was nothing to say.

When they got to the office, Agent Marshall went off to where she and Agent Mulder were set up. They had been given a table while they were going to be working there. This was so that they could fill out paper work, etc. without needing to use someone else's desk. Mulder went with Agent Marshall.

He sat down and began to record his notes on the children. He commented that for someone who is at the mere age of eleven, Amanda seemed very cold and bitter. He noticed that she did not seem to care that her sister was gone; she did not seem that distraught be the whole ordeal. Mulder decided that he wanted to talk to the parents about it sometime.


	7. Chapter 7

**Scully Residence**

**8:35 P.M.**

"Mommy, can you tell me another story?" Chelsea asked. Although it was her bedtime, she did not want to go to bed. This is how most four year olds act. Her room was a light purple, and all of her furniture in her room was white.

Ding-dong. Scully heard the doorbell downstairs, but she did not get up to go and get it because she was putting Chelsea to bed. However, she heard voices downstairs. She kissed Chelsea on the head, looked at her and said, "No, Honey, I can't tell you another story. You need to go to bed now."

Scully turned off the light in her room, shut the door almost all the way, and went downstairs. It was then that she placed the voice that she heard. It was Mulder's. Why was he here this time of night? What did he want, she thought to herself.

"Mulder, what are you doing here?" she asked him.

"I wanted to talk to you, and since we don't talk at work, I thought I should come here," Mulder explained. Her husband was standing in the middle of the two.

"You know him, Dana?" her husband said, perplexed.

"I used to work with him when I worked in Washington, and he is here working on the case that I am working on right now, ironically," Scully explained to her husband. "Mulder, this is my husband, Richard Geller."

It was just about then that Chelsea came downstairs. Although she knew it was past her bedtime, she wanted to see who the mysterious visitor was. Chelsea did not recognize him. In fact, he scared her a little because he was so tall.

"Mommy, who is that?" she asked Scully.

"This is a friend of mine from work, Sweety. This is Agent Mulder," Scully explained.

"This is my daughter, Chelsea," Scully told Mulder. He stared at the child, not knowing what to say. There was nothing that he could say. Scully had a family, something that seemed impossible when they were working in Washington together.

Her husband picked Chelsea up and said, "Hey, now, aren't you supposed to be in bed? I'll leave you two alone for a bit." He took Chelsea up to bed, and Mulder and Scully went out on the deck.

"Nice kid," Mulder commented. He sat down in one of the patio chairs, still amazed.

"Mulder, what did you come here to talk about?" Scully pressed.

"Well, since you ask, I just wanted to come here to talk to you. I feel like since I've been here, you have done everything you can to distance yourself from me," Mulder explained.

"Look, I'm sorry, but this is not appropriate. We are working this case together," Scully replied.

"Scully, look, we used to be friends. What happened to that? Why can't we be friends and partners again?" Mulder pondered out loud.

"We can never be partners again, you know that -" Scully tried to say, but Mulder stopped her in her tracks.

"You know what I mean, though," Mulder stated. He looked at her with this sympathetic look. Finally, she gave in and they started talking.

"I have a funny feeling about Amanda. I feel as if she is hiding something. She seems very..." Mulder trailed off.

"Do you mean cold, and bitter?" Scully filled in. Although they had not worked together in a long time, she could still finish his sentences.

"Yeah. I mean, she is only eleven, but she seemed like she had been a green beret in Vietnam or something by the way she talked," Mulder said.

"We should call the parents in for questioning tomorrow, and ask them about her," Scully replied. She wrote it down on a little piece of paper.

"So how did you meet your husband?" Mulder asked changing the subject. Scully looked at him oddly.

"We met at a restaurant six years ago, just after I moved here. We have been married for five years,"Scully told Mulder.

"He seems nice enough," Mulder commented.

"He is. He's terrific. He's great with Chelsea," Scully said.

"I thought you couldn't have children," Mulder said.

"We didn't think so either. She was conceived through in-vitro fertilization," Scully explained. "She's four."

"What does your husband do for a job?" Mulder asked. Although he knew her husband's name, he could not bring himself to use it.

"He works for the local university as a psychology professor," Scully replied.

Mulder looked at his watch. It was half past nine. He knew that it was time to go. He got up from his chair, and went back into the house. Scully followed him.

"I'll see you tomorrow at work, okay?" Mulder said.

"All right," Scully answered. Scully went into the living room where her husband was and sat down on the couch. She sighed. She felt like she was being dishonest in her marriage, but at the same time, she was glad that she had spent that time with Mulder.

"How long did you two work together in D.C.?" Her husband asked.

"Six years," she replied.

"Six years. You never mentioned him before. What were you both assigned to?" her husband probed.

"Mulder started working on this project called the 'x-files' back in 1991 with another agent, Diana Fowley. In 1993 she asked to reassigned to another area of the bureau, for reasons I don't know, and don't care to know. That was when I was brought down to work with Mulder on the x-files - " Scully explained but Richard cut her short.

"Was it just the two of you?" he asked.

"Yes, it was. I was originally sent down there to investigate the legitimacy his work, but I couldn't because I felt that his investigations were just. We worked together until I was transferred here," Scully continued.

"Why were you transferred here?" her husband asked.

"Well, they shut down the x-files, for a couple of reasons, actually. One, the office burned, and two, they did not like our investigations, and what our work was uncovering. They said our work was not legitimate. We were reassigned to a general assignment type of task force. That June, there was a bomb threat called into Dalles, Texas. We were some of the agents that were assigned to find it. We found it; however, we didn't find it in time. The bomb went off. The Office of Professional Review, or OPR felt that it would be best if we were separated, and I was to be transferred. That's how I ended up here," Scully concluded.

"Were you anything more than partners?" her husband finally asked.

Scully looked at him. She really did not know what to say. Mulder and she had a special relationship, but they had never even really kissed. In her mind, that meant that they had been nothing more than friends; however, she knew the possibility was there. She answered, "No we were just friends, and he just wanted to catch up."

Scully went to bed that night not knowing what to think. It had been years since she had last seen Mulder. She never thought that she would have to deal with her feelings for him again. She laid there in bed that night wondering if her husband could detect the feelings that she had for Mulder. She wondered if Mulder had those feelings for her.

**F.B.I. Field Office**

**10:35 A.M.**

Later the next morning, the parents of the missing girl were called in for questioning.


	8. Chapter 8

**F.B.I. Field Office**

**10:35 A.M.**

Later the next morning, the parents of the missing girl were called in for questioning. Both of them walked down the hall in the police station into the interrogation room. They were accompanied by their attorney. They were dressed in business attire, as to look professional for the F.B.I. and other law enforcement officials they might encounter. Mr. and Mrs. Greene entered the interrogation room where Agents Mulder and Marshall were sitting. Scully and her partner, Foster were behind the mirror, watching.

"Thanks for agreeing to talk with us again," Mulder said, ever so politely to the couple and their attorney.

"You're welcome," the husband replied. "Anything to find our little girl."

"Actually, I wanted talk to you about one of your daughters, Amanda. I spoke with her yesterday, and see seemed almost... unaffected by the ordeal, and I was just curious if that was just her personality or if that was her way of dealing with it..." Mulder said, trailing off.

The parents looked at each other. It was clear that they knew something was amiss with Amanda. "Amanda... is not my biological child," Matthew Greene began to explain. "Julia had her in high school, and when we got married, I adopted her. She has always been resentful at the facts that there have been other children - Alison and Laura Ashley."

"Which are your children?" Mulder asked him. He had a pen in his hand, and a pad of paper.

"Yes, we've been married for four years. After we had Alison, we got married," Mr. Greene continued to explain. He poured himself a glass of water from the pitcher that was on the table.

"I see... and is either of you in contact with Amanda's father?" Agent Marshall asked. She looked at the mother to solicit an answer. She took a deep breath.

"Yes, I am," Mrs. Greene said. She bowed her head down, almost as if she were doing it in shame. Her husband whipped his head around and looked at her. Clearly, he did not know that his wife was still in contact with her ex-boyfriend - Amanda's biological father. "After Keith relinquished his parental rights, he came to me and told me that he still wanted to know about her, about what she was doing in life. I told him sure, no problem. We write to each other, and I send pictures every now and then."

Agent Mulder looked at her and said, "And you didn't tell your husband?"

"I thought it would be better not to. I felt that it was just something that he didn't need to be burdened with. Matt, I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner," Mrs. Greene replied. He blew her off. He was the one person whom she was supposed to be honest with - no matter what happened.

Mulder began to get annoyed with their small, public battle with each other. Although they were not verbally fighting, this could now impede the rest of the interview. He grouped himself together, and asked, "Did Amanda and Alison share a room?"

Mrs. Greene nodded, "Yes they shared a room."

"Did Amanda's biological father know that you had other children?" Mulder asked.

"No, he didn't. Whenever, we wrote it was strictly about Amanda. How she was doing in school, her height, her friends - just about Amanda," Mrs. Greene explained to Mulder.

"So you never mentioned about your husband, or your other children?" Mulder questioned.

"No, I mean Keith knew I was married, but that was all, and he only knew that because it was public knowledge," Mrs. Greene told Agent Mulder.

Mulder made a note of it, and said, "Thank you for your cooperation today."

"Anything to find our little girl," Mr. Greene told Mulder. The couple got up out of their seats, grabbed their jackets of the backs of the chairs, with their attorney, and went out the door. Mulder stayed in the interrogation room with Agent Marshall. Scully and her partner soon entered the interrogation room.

Agent Marshall sighed and said, "Well, that didn't give us much, did it?"

"Actually, I think it gave us more than we think. What else can we find about the older sibling's biological father?" Scully asked.

"I think Scully's right. What if the father of Amanda is involved?" Mulder said, posing the question.


End file.
